POT 'PROBLEM' IS POLITICAL

Re: Police Struggle To Keep Ahead Of Pot Growers, Sept. 20.

Grow-ops are cited as "the country's fastest expanding 'drug' problem." I
would counter the phenomenon of grow ops is actually the country's fastest
expanding "political" problem.

The problem with grow-ops in not a marijuana problem, it is a policy
problem, it is a vision problem, it is a failure of leadership to act boldly
where bold action is required. Marijuana is not inherently evil and is not
inherently valuable. It is our regime of prohibition laws and our abstinence
based approach to marijuana that inflates the value of marijuana to criminal
levels and that has fed the massive growth in grow-ops in this country.

The fact that grow ops are expanding exponentially and that police are
resigned to the fact that they will never even put a dent in the illegal
industry should be evidence enough that we need to regulate marijuana and
tax its sale.

I hope that during the coming session of Parliament, MPs work towards
legalizing marijuana and reverse the tide of grow-ops which has been created
by our failed drug policy.

Jody Pressman, executive director, NORML Canada, Ottawa.